Doris+Jones

Doris Jones, a 20-year-old mother of two, died April 11, 1935, from complications of a criminal abortion perpetrated on April 3.

Dr. Guy E. Brewer, a 53-year-old bachelor known for his benevolence toward college students, was fingered as the culprit by Doris' husband, Victor. Brewer was a quiet, small-town doctor in Garber, Oklahoma and immensely popular for his benevolence in putting local young men through college.

Doris' 22-year-old husband, Victor, a grocery clerk, had not known about the abortion until after Doris took ill. He reported the deadly abortion to police, whereupon his employer retaliated by firing him.

Victor at least had the company of other bereaved families whose loved ones had died from abortions perpetrated by Brewer. Hermoine Fowler, a 20-year-old coed, died in June of 1934.

Ruby Ford died in early April of 1934. Wanda Lee Gray, age 20, Myrtle Rose , age 21, and Elizabeth Shaw , age 23, evidently died in early June of 1935.

Brewer pleaded guilty to all six deaths but only got a slap on the wrist -- six four-year sentences, to run concurrently.

Doris' abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see [|Abortion in the 1930s].

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

Sources: 
 * "Abortion Case Probed Behind Closed Doors", //The Oklahoman//, May 2, 1935
 * "Protoges Rally to Doctor's Aid," //Miami (OK) Daily News-Record//, May 2, 1935
 * "Probe Doctor's Activity With Oklahoma Students," //Rockford (IL) Register-Republic//, May 1, 1935
 * "Medic Charged With Murder in Special Probe," //Nevada State Journal//, May 1, 1935
 * "Kindly Doctor, Noted for his Philanthropy to Students, In Jane at Enid on Murder Charges," //Miami (OK) Daily News-Record//, May 1, 1935





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